The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-11-08
there we shall find it to perfection. !"


the apple. Willie Grey. cause was
watching to see If you behaved good"
There it il againl Watching Will
lies behavior instead of her own. Do
you give up the search. Ellisa No! Let
us lunch then and seek further"
The cafe was almost deserted, and
the two friends seated themselves at a
table which commanded view to the
dining hall, where they might note the
various people coming and going. and
note also how many of them were
minding their own affairs, how many
interesting themselves in their neigh
bors'.
Ellis. the young enthusiast. grew
quite interestedly merry over the af-
fair, although confessing the evidence
rather too one-sided to be agreeable to
him.
De Lancy, the aristocratic bondhold-
er, pronounced wholesale condemna-
ton upon the pools and corners OF his
confreres, forgetting to make mention
of his own; Jones, the alderman, while
conveying a generous bride to his ever
open pocket with one hand. used his
other to gesticulate his scathing de-
nunciation of city hall corruption; the
deacon bemoaned the backsliding of
his brother; the lawyer designated as
a pettifogging rascal the attorney who
had been SO fortunate as to gain a vic
tory over him, denOuncing those
methods q shade whittier than his own;
the physician hurled all pathies save
his own to perdition; the artist saw
false lights on another's canvas; mu-
stefan struck the false notes OF anoth-
er's melody; mechanic pointed out
the defects of aeo-worker's machinery;
even Alonzo criticised the mustache of
his rival, and Flora Flimsey thought if
she were those Smith girls she would
not act as they did! Miss Prim gasped
between shocked spasms that THAT
forward French girl visiting the Browns
actually looked at man and giggled;"
and even little Dale, charub newly
descended, lisped that she "asked God
every night to make her brother bet
ter boy"
Ellis looked at his friend with help
less expression of encouragement.
Tell me, Neil, are You the only man
living who minds his own affairs?'
His friend laughed heartily. ''Oh.
no! my boy, scarcely deserve that
distinction. But do YOU not fancy
from your two hours observation that
/ was right in urging a return to the
good old maximP And have you no
curiosity to hear how l happened to
differ from the generality of mankind
in this respect, or how, in fact, |
learned to mind my own affairs. for L
did learn?"
"Of course / should like to hear
about itr' for confess your ability to
do SO is something of mystery to me
since discovered how rare the faculty
and how naturally people incline in
the opposite direction"
"Well, then, to 60 back to the days
of youth and India Chat Mecca and
destruction as we'll of SO many young
MEM. was stationed there when in
that state of mistaken verdure where a
youth inclines to the belief that he is a
sort of self-appointed regulator of all
human affairs"
What, Neil! you ever the victim of
YOUR own Importance / can not credit
the thingr
True, nevertheless. / vainly inn
agined myself a sort of demi-god, and
as such in greater or less degree the
arbitrator of my fellows. So it tran
spired that /, a mere stripping, sought
to manage another life as well as my
own, or rather instead of my own,
choosing for my easy to be nodded pu-
pill a young fellow of our regiment
whom / fancied very tractable clay in
my hands. Well, to make long story
short, l appointed myself sole guard
ian and director of the boy, and while
secretly feeling sort of contempt for
the weakness that would make man
only puppetin the hands of another, ]
could not fail to feel also pride in
what seemed complete victory over
another being. Judge, then, my disap.
pointing chagrin to receive one morn
ing this letter, which / have always
kept by me to effectually enforce al
observance of the old maxim. Yes, '
as Ellis hesitated, "you may read it, &
deadly wound to my self-importancc
in the past, tits not displeasing to mt
! now, since proving the young fool ha'
not developed into an old one, in thi
respect at least But read for your
self" and Ellis did SO.
The epistle was dated twenty year
agone, and was as follows:
: To Colonel o. Ned, setf-appointed regulator o
all Affairs sdue his otcn:
! SIR: On behalf Of myself and humanity q
large, offer with the sincere hope that il ma
be acceptedD this adyice-that you attend
your own affairs and let your good neishbors al